Word had got around, and about 45 members and guests turned up to experience a rerun of Steve Liebeskind 's very well received smoked salmon in mushroom broth, with Paul Irwin assisting.

But first, an array of canapes, featuring a rich and sticky duck liver pate on bread rounds, a delicate prawn mousse on pumpernickel and two pastes made from the mushroom leftovers: a buttery finely minced "pate" and a coarser darker and more highly flavoured "terrine", both on bread rounds. The 2008 Kilikanoon Clare Valley served with them showed the gold colour of a bit of age, but was still drinking fresh with good acid balance. The Lustau fino sherry was its usual quality.

Steve's main was again a triumph, with lightly hot-smoked fillets of salmon, crisp-skinned, lowered into an intense mushroom broth with just the skin above the liquid. In the broth, some chopped Chinese cabbage and pieces of oyster mushroom with whole enoki mushrooms gave the dish texture, although there was a bit much of them. But the salmon was a joy (if some pieces were a tad overdone) and the broth was more so, with a soup spoon thoughtfully provided. The Chris Alexiou trophy looms. The accompanying wines were a 2007 Yering Station chardonnay from the Yarra, and a 2010 Paliser Martinborough pinot from NZ. A quality white with plenty of rich stone fruit flavours, although a bit woody for the smoking in the fish. The pinot, a good concept with the dish, disappointed in quality terms, with strong sweet pinot characters not balanced by any real acid or tannins, and a hard finish on the back palate.

Steve's cheese wish was granted by the Cheese Master, in the form of an Ossau Iraty semi-hard sheep's milk cheese from the French Basque region of Aquitaine produced there for more than 4000 years. Salty on the rind with a lovely soft moist and oily paste showing olive notes on the palate, it received unanimous praise. As did, in the main, the matching wines: a 2005 wine labelled as Rosemount Mudgee shiraz cabernet, but in real life the Mountain Blue; and a 2007 Calo Reserve rioja, made on tempranillo grapes, from Spain. Both were great examples of their pedigree, the Mountain Blue soft and sweet with elegance and a long finish; the Spanish bigger and fuller, with a tonne of flavour and tannins to keep it in check. Most preferred the Oz, but there wasn't much in it.

The coffee, provided by Spencer Ferrier in absentia, was a blend of Kenyan A and B beans, the latter giving darker notes to a clean balanced brew with good citrus acidity. A birthday Armagnac from Peter Kelso, towards the sweeter end of the Armagnac spectrum, went down well with it.